By JEANNIE WONG
ORLANDO, Fl. — Well, that wasn’t so bad.
After five hours-plus across country, we landed in Orlando at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time with two tired but extremely happy little girls. They were so cheery, in fact, that they had refused to be beaten by the cramped and crowded planes or the inevitable earaches that hit during the first leg of the trip.
Sure, they were occasionally restless, but then they would rally. SpongeBob helped — he was a featured player on the small screens in the seatbacks in front of us, courtesy of satellite TV.
The girls didn’t even seem to mind that we were crammed in the next-to-last row, by the single working lavatory in the back (note to self: Ewww!) or that some of their fellow passengers, waiting for said lavatory, would plant themselves by us and stare down, unblinkingly.
And really, I’m not talking about casual glances — at least three people turned their bodies fully toward us and gaped at my daughters as if they were monkeys in a zoo. Yes, I know folks, they are awfully cute. But can you look at some of the other people around us now?
Still, it could have been worse.
“Yeah, you got the front, but their butts were turned toward me,” complained my understandably affronted Spouse, who was seated across the aisle. “I think you got the better part of the deal.”
And in hindsight — pun fully intended — he was right.
Since we’re talking about looking back … I’m not sure if, in doing this over, I would have arranged for us to arrive in Florida so late in the day.
We initially thought that we’d give ourselves a break — fly out of Northern California at the completely civilized hour of noon. No rushing around, maybe sleep in a little. Yeah, right. I was up at 4:45, brain already whirling with what to pack for three. (Spouse was left to fend for himself.)
So, with two flights (and a mad rush through the Atlanta airport in between to catch our connector), baggage pickup and rental car, we didn’t get to our hotel until 11 p.m. Even so, everywhere we looked, the place was crawling with kids — all still wide awake and wired, just like ours.
Orlando is a little like Vegas for 10-year-olds.
As for our hotel, it’s such a new property, it doesn’t even show up on a GPS yet. Called the Parc Soleil, it was pitched to me as being only minutes from Disney World. (The pitchwoman also mentioned something about a waterfall in the bathtub — well, I had to see that.)
The property, of course, did not disappoint. With lots of fountains and a giant wildslide (which my girls were ready to try out at midnight; they didn’t), the place was a welcome sight. I couldn’t help but also covet the in-room, fully appointed kitchen. And I don’t cook.
This morning, we used it to brew a pot of coffee, which I am now enjoying. And The Spouse and kids are splashing along with dozens of others in the pool downstairs. It’s sunny here, about 70 degrees.
Oh, and that waterfall? Instead of coming from a common faucet, water spills down in a stream from the ceiling, filling the large oval, freestanding tub below.
OK, that was worth seeing.
Text and photos by J. Wong
(You’ll find links to Web sites with helpful tips, information and more on the Cool Travel Sites page. –G. Gross)